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Plays · Theme
Illusion and Reality
How Plays develops Illusion and Reality.
The boundary between dream and waking, vision and truth, is deliberately blurred—as in Nishikigi, where the priest witnesses a ghostly reenactment and questions whether it is illusion, and in Suma Genji, where the woodcutter reveals himself as a spirit, prompting reflection on the nature of existence.
Where it surfaces
- Act II
The Yamauba discusses the delusion of human life and the equivalence of good and wrong, suggesting that perception shapes reality. Her own form is a mix of the terrifying and the divine.